Peloponnese Beaches
Romanou
My correspondent, who visited in Jule/July 1998, says Romanou is a very small town north of Pilos on the Peleponnese. The beach is easy to find. Just drive into the village, follow the sign to the beach. Near the sea there is on your left hand a parking place, keep on riding straight ahead. Follow the sand road as far as you can. At the end of the road you find a beautiful long beach. The beach is visited mainly by Greek men. There is some cruising of gays in the dunes behind the beach.
This beach is outside (about 1 km) of a small port called Vivari. This port there is half way on the road from Drepano Nafplioy to Iria (about 10 km from Nafplion/Argolida). When you are in Vivari you can see a cape on the left side of the bay with a white chapel (probably Agios Nicolaos) on the tip of it. Close to this cape is the naturist beach. To reach it you follow the road along the coast in the direction of Iria. The road goes up and after about 3 kilometers on the highest point there is a turn-off. There is a sign with "Kodili beach" on it. By the way you have a magnificent view from here over the bay of Argos, peninsulae in front of it and the high mountains of the Peloponnese behind it. It is an asphalt road which goes down until the beach. The beach is in fact divided into to parts by a hill, which foot just touches the water. The road arrives on the right part, which is about 300m(?) wide. Here are two bars. The left part seems to me the part most suited for naturism. You must climb over rock for a few meters. It's a big beach but most of it is pebbly.
Another beach nearby is reported. After 1 km from the turn to "Kodili" and before a small bridge, you can see, on your right, a village house with pine trees and rails around it. There you turn right on to small road with half-asphalt for the first 50 metres and then unsurfaced until the end (not so bad). At the end there is said to be a very big beach suitable for nudism. However there much shingle both on the beach and for two metres while entering the water. The water is not clear. Once you have passed the shingle you can swim quite well although there are many rollers. Overall, my contributors do not think it is a really exciting beach. But you are quite alone : not more than a few couples.
From Nafplio, follow the main road east. The road is the one to Ligourio and Epidaurus, but the main signs say "Tolo" - the important thing is that it's the main road out of Nafplio which isn't the one which goes north to Argos! (There are only two major roads out of Nafplio.) 2 miles/3km outside Nafplio take the right fork signed "Tolo", then 1.5 mile/2km later fork left for Drepano and Iria. Turn left (east) when you get to the T-junction in the middle of Drepano about 2.5 miles/3.5km further on. Another mile or so brings you to the little fishing village of Vivari. The road then climbs up the hillside (Taverna Exedra a few hundred metres out of the village has a wonderful set of outdoor tables perched on a platform built out from the cliff with a beautiful view of Vivari and its little gulf - recommended! - GPS waypoint N 37 32' 10", E 22 55' 24"), and starts winding round the contours. Go past "Lefka Beach Camping", and right at the top of the hill there's a shack and a right turn (GPS waypoint N 37 31' 59", E 22 56' 04"). You report this as an earth road, signed "Ag Nikolaos-Kandili", but it has now been tarmac-ed all the twisty way down to the beach, and is signed "Kodili" - we saw no mention of Agios Nikolaos.
Unfortunately, the cutting away of the hillside involved in producing a full-width roadbed meant there was a *lot* of stony debris in parts, giving one the choice of driving on the outside of the (unfenced) road or risking the underside and tyres (by now this problem might have eased). The road ends in the middle of the beach, by two large wooden structures which are presumably high-season bars, but were empty when we were there at the very beginning of June 2001. One can drive along the very good stony surface behind the beach proper to either end of the gently curving bay - around 500m total. The south-eastern end has a little rocky outcrop one can clamber over or wade round, giving access to another few hundred metres of beach. All the beach is a mixture of pebbles and coarse sand, with a fair bit of rock and stone underwater in some areas, particularly the stretch beyond the south-eastern end of the "car park". The day we visited was a Saturday, and there were quite a few people around, although certainly no crowds. But not one was naked. And while they were spaced out, particularly at either end, the spacing was never enough for one to be able to get into a large gap and strip comfortably. So we put on cozzies, had a very pleasant dip, and went elsewhere.
Instead of turning off to Kondili, we recommend staying on the road for another mile. As it flattens out, there are several houses on either side of the road, with pines and other trees. Just as you say, this is a hundred metres before a bridge, and there's a part-tarmac dirt track off to your right along the boundary wall for the first house on the right - there was a 'P' painted in red on the stone corner of this wall when we were there (GPS waypoint of turn-off N 37 31' 41", E 22 57' 23"). Our advice is not to follow the track all the way. After about 100m, take a left turn by a large eucalyptus tree, go past another track heading off to your right and a whitewashed wall on your left, then follow the track round to the right and go all the way to the end - there's room for several vehicles to park there (turn round when you arrive, just in case). The original, western, track is rather longer and less kind to the tyres and suspension, although there is a large rough parking area at its end (don't try the middle track, it's very narrow in parts, and it is very easy to end up blocking access for the farmers who live and work there). If you use the easier eastern track, turn right when you get onto the beach, turn left at the beach if you used the western track.
Between these two points (GPS waypoints N 37 31' 09" E 22 57' 14" and N 37 31' 12" E 22 56' 08" respectively) is an area a few hundred metres long used by naturists - they seem to cluster round the point where the middle track comes out onto the beach. There's less sand here - unless the sea is very calm in which case a narrow strip appears right by the water's edge - and the underwater is almost entirely stones and rock, so plastic sandals are recommended for avoiding scratches and sea-urchin spines. Non-naturists use this beach too, although there are rather more of them a bit further east by the two tavernas of Kandia beach (again, recommended).
A few miles further on again a new tourism area is being developed at Iria Beach - two or three miles of gravelly sand with the 200m strip between sand and road being infilled with villas, campsites and apartments. The limited beach nudity we and a few others enjoyed seemed to be unremarked and accepted. Not the greatest CO beach ever, but certainly pleasant and worth a visit if you are in the area. There's even a few trees providing natural shade if you get there early enough to grab them, and the views across to the islands of Platia and Psili are good - if the air's reasonably clear you can see Astros on the other side of the Argolikos Gulf.
Mavrovouni beach
A beautiful sandy beach , length 6 km, situated 3 km outside Gythio town, in southern Peloponnese, in Laconia the distance is 3 hours drive from Athens. There are 3 camping sites "Meltemi", "Gythion Bay" and "Mani Beach". The beach is easily accessed. On its one end near the rocks its completely isolated and reportedly ideally for nudism.
Vathi Gythiou
A very beautiful beach in Gythio 10min. after Mavrovouni beach. There is a camping site there named "Porto Ageranos". A report says that on the left of the camping site, as you arrive there is a river that goes in to the sea and the possibility of free camping and nudism
Unfortunately, a depressing report rreaches the Captain. There are two camping sites "Porto Ageranos" on the beach's southern end near the Hotel "Belle H?l?ne" and "Kronos" on the centre of the beach near the little river. "Porto Ageranos" is deserted, "Kronos" chaotic and quite dirty. North of the little river there is about 1 km for naked beach life. My contributors and their Greek and Italian friends (3 couples) frequented this beach once a year since 1994 in July. What they found in 2000 was the worst yet: a real dust-bin with hordes of free running dogs, voyeurs, men masturbating in the dunes and in the water, men coming close to you taking sun in a distance of 10 meters showing their erections. Once a lovely place, Vathi Gythiou is degenerated from year to year. The Captain deplores this kind of behaviour - it is not what naturism is about and gives ordinary naturists a bad name.
Rio
Rio is 7 Km from Patras. The beach is after the Porto Rio Hotel. You're passing Porto Rio's beach (on foot and direction to Patras) and after the bushes there is the beach that you can swim nude.
Kalogria
As you arrive at Kalogria facing the sea, on your right hand there is a small hill. You pass the hill and there is a wonderful sandy beach where you can swim nude.
Kalo Nero
On the west coast of the Peloponnese, some kilometres north of Kyparissia, there is the village called Kalo Nero (= beautiful water). with an immense and large sandy beach on the south and the north. From about 2 km on the north of the last houses the beach is nearly deserted for distance of more than 5 km. Even on Sundays in August there were not more than 20 persons on this immense beach, that is ideal for nude bathing and walking. No sun loungers, parasols, tavernas or anything like that. My contributors enjoyed it a lot and will come back!
Trahila
Take the street from Agios Nikolaos and Agios Dimitrios to Trahila in the region called Exo Mani and pass through the small village of Trahila. About half a km later you find on your right cliffs with dressed and naked bathers (50% to 50%). The water is very clean an nice but there is few space for taking sun.
Zaxaro
There is a beach at the thermae of Kaiafa on the west side of Pelloponnisos, 5 minutes from Zaxaro. It is an enormous sandy beach just in front of the railway station of kaiafa. There is a small forest on the beach where free camping is practised. The beach is so long that can never be crowded. Anyone who wants to practise nudism will surely find a place to do so, especially on the left side as you watch the see. the day my contributor was on the beach (August 2002) were 6 people, all nude, at a distance of about 100 metres.
Finikounda
There are three lovely beaches in Finikounda. The one on the Methoni side is the longest. There are three points of entry to the beach. My contributors visited in August 2002. They used the turning off the main road furthest away from Finikounda. They entered the beach and walked back towards the town. Here there was a stretch where there were always a group of nudists well spaced out on a great stretch of golden sand. Textiles walked by but were not intrusive. It was a very relaxed spot.
